my baby ferret

Question
QUESTION: ok first of all i just got a baby ferret a week ago from my husband as an early birthday present, i love her to death already! shes a marshalls ferret the pet store he got her from says shes about 10 to 12 wks old, im feeding her marshalls ferret food,i bought her a regular sized cage i have a water bottle in it for her ,a heavy food dish, a corner litter box ,im using the ferret litter they said to use in it,i also have a hamic in it for her to sleep in.at first i layed out old recieving blankets on the bottom of her cage but then i started noticing she was gnawing and chewing them,and when i pulled them out to wash them a day later i noticed she had eaten HUGE holes in them! so iv kept them out. now it seems like she pouts when i put her in her cage:( oh by the way i have her out of her cage alot i wake up and let her out for at least two hours before i go to work and when i come home i let her out again till its time to go to sleep,i have never owned a ferret before nor do i know anything about them i have two other cats that dont seem to mind her one of my cats even plays with her, i also have a small dog who seems a little jealouse cause hes always been my baby but hes harmless.anyway  to get to the point. she wanders my living room i keep all other doors shut my living room is attached to the kitchen so i dont know how to keep her out of there she crawls underneith the cuboards where i cant get to her im afraid of whats behind there for her to get hurt, she also gets underneith  and inside the fireplace and gets completely black and i cant get it off her ,and when she gets into these places she wont come out till shes ready how can i entice her out? like right now im ready to go to bed and i cant find her anywhere, also she dousnt seem to want to play with me or my husband alot ,more so she plays by herself and when we try to get her to play she douse these weird back flips and runs away from us, i tried a sqweeky toy and she came running making this funny little noise stole it out of my hands and took it somwhere i cant find it now,id just like to know if im doing things right any imformation or advice you could give me would be sooo helpfull,also her fur is not full and plushy like all other ferrets iv seen online or in person infact its almost very thin is it because its summertime almost?

ANSWER: Hi Amy,

Welcome to the wonderful world of ferret parenthood. As you are starting to notice, it is quite a bit of work, but it is so much fun! I hope you are enjoying it.

I have a suggestion to make for you concerning food. I praise you for getting what would seem to be the right food for your little girl! I think that is really great! Marshalls food is very deceiving, though. Since it is made by the same people who supply many people with these wonderful little animals, you would think that it would be the best food out there. This isn't really the case. Ferrets are called obligate carnivores. That means they can only digest meat. They cannot have fruits, vegetables, or grains. These things could get caught in their digestive tract, causing a blockage that could be fatal if you don't catch it in time. That being said, you want a ferret kibble that has 36% protein, 20% fat and less than 3% fiber. Another rule of thumb is if you look at the labels on the ferret food and you read the ingredients, corn, wheat, or sugar (or anything similar) shouldn't be in the first three ingredients. Companies use these products as fillers and bindings to make the nice kibble shape. Unfortunately, Marshalls kibble has corn listed as the second ingredient, so it is not really the best food to be feeding. We use Totally Ferret for our fuzzies! If you need to switch your food, you're going to have to do it gradually. I would try mixing the old food and the new food together. Try 15% new food, 85% old food at first and do that for about a week, then up the ratio between the old food and new food gradually over the next few weeks. The reason it takes so long is that ferrets imprint on the food they are given early in life and after that they don't recognize anything else as food! Also, it is good practice to mix a few high-quality foods together anyway because you could have a problem on your hands if the food you feed your fuzzy goes off the market! If you mix a few different foods and one goes off the market, you can always have the other two to fall back on!

You have mentioned one of the trademark behaviors of fuzzies. Ferrets steal things. It is in their nature and it is one those endearing qualities most specific to ferrets. Shiny things, toys, shoes (in some cases). All of these things could be a target for ferret theft. They like something, so they take it and put it in their "hidey-hole" so they can play with it later. We have lost some interesting things in our fuzzy parenthood! The rule of thumb for that is if you don't want your ferret to have it, then you should put it away. And if you do put it away, make sure it is somewhere hidden really well and out of reach. Ferrets are little Houdinis. They can get in and out of anything. They will think of very complicated routes that we humans would never even dream of to get what they want. This is why ferret proofing their play area is so important. (As a side note, I am glad you let the ferret run around in the living room. They like being in the center of things.) I am a little worried about your fuzzy getting in the fireplace. I think the best thing to do is to block where your ferret gets into the fireplace. It is a good rule, when you're ferret proofing, to start with all the things you don't want you ferret to play with or steal. Also, if you have potted plants on the ground, it would be a good idea to put decorative stones on top of the dirt in the plant because ferrets have a very strong digging instinct. Another tip, make sure there is no rubber or styrofoam or anything else like that around. Ferrets love to eat these things and they can (and probably will) cause blockages in the ferret's digestive system. After all of these things are out of the way, you want to crawl around on your stomach and look around the room. This way you'll see any holes near the base boards or places that your ferret can crawl in. If you see a hole, patch it up. Wood or fiberglass are commonly used as patchers for holes. As for the kitchen, kitchens are not great places for ferrets to be because they are too many places for them to get stuck or crushed, so it would be a good investment to get one of those baby gates but make sure it is one that the ferret can't climb over. An even better idea to try is fiberglass. You can make a makeshift door out of fiberglass that ferrets can't climb over.

Another thing to think about when ferretproofing your living room is ferrets like to crawl up into couches, recliners, and beds. They will get up there and fall asleep and then, without knowing, you could sit down and recline your chair and that will make a seriously injured or killed fuzzy. To prevent this, you can staple fabric under the couch, chair, or bed so they can't climb in, but make sure there is not any room for a fuzzy to wiggle her way in. I have also heard of people putting wood or fiberglass under couches, or just taking the legs off couches all together so they sit on the ground. You have a few options here.

Ferrets are really playful animals, but all of them have different personalities. When we play with our fuzzies around here, we get on the ground with them and wrestle them with our hands and play with their toys with them. They aren't the type of animal to want to sit still and be cuddled all day. They love to run around and roughhouse. An important thing to remember when roughhousing with your fuzzy is ferrets bite each other when they are playing and they have such thick skin that they can't feel the biting. This is not the case for their humans, obviously. If your ferret bites too hard when you are playing with her, gently grab her by the scruff of her neck and say "no" in a firm voice, then hold her close to you and talk to her. We call this the "scruff and snuggle" and it has been really helpful with our little boy we just got because he tends to nip. Anyway, they do tend to do their own thing, a lot of the time so if you want to play, you have to engage it sometimes.

That funny little noise you mentioned: was it a sort of barking/chirping? If it was, that is called a dook, and that is a good thing! That means happiness with a fuzzy, so you're doing something right when you hear that! And those backflips, that could be her weasel war dance. When a ferret is having fun or is happy, you'll see her arch her back, stick her tail in the air, and jump all around with her mouth open. This is a good thing when ferrets do it and it is usually an invitation to play.

Squeaky toys are good things to coax ferrets out of hiding, so you are doing the right thing there. If you work with her, you can get her to come when you say her name as well. Be careful with squeaky toys, though. Ferrets will chew through the toy and get the squeaker out and they could choke on it, so just be aware of that.  

As for your fur question, there is this product called Ferretone out there. It is a fatty acid supplement that really isn't needed if you are feeding the right diet and it shouldn't be given in high doses, but it does help with a shiny coat and most ferrets LOVE this stuff so it can help when you are trying to clip their nails. You just put a little bit on her belly and put her nose in it and she should start licking it up. It is a good treat to have and it really helps with the sheen of their coat. They do shed twice a year, though. That could by why her coat is thinner because summer is one of their shedding times.

As a new ferret owner, I would suggest you read Ferrets for Dummies by Kim Schilling. It is an amazing resource for old and new ferret owners. It will give you a lot of information on the basics and the more advanced techniques of owning ferrets and it will give you some background on ferrets. It is definitely something I recommend you get a copy of!

I hope all of this has helped. Congratulations on being a new ferret owner and let me know if you have any more questions. Don't hesitate to ask, if you do!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews

P.S.

You may have noticed your ferret having a little foot fetish. They love feet and a lot of them love shoes. It is cute to see them drag your shoes across the floor but it could be dangerous. They will get your insoles out of your shoes and chew on them. If they swallow a shoe insole, it can (and again, probably will) cause an intestinal blockage that will be fatal if you don't catch it. This is something to look out for in the future!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you very much for the imformation you gave me its helped alot iv just perchaced some new food as well its called totally ferret is that a good brand? anyway theres somthing that freaked me out that my baby did yesterday, i was sitting on the ground next to the couch watching a movie with my husband and i was eating a twix, the baby walked up to me and stood there watching me about a foot away for like 2 minutes, then all the sudden she flew in the air, jumped at me, stole my twix and ran as fast as she could under the couch hissing and acting crazy i cought her "with my husbands help" and we were trying to hold her down to get the candy out of her mouth ,it was a king size by the way,and she was going crazy hissing and wiggling and freaking out but we got it back from her and as soon as we got it back she went about her buisiness like nothing happend!, it really freaked me out i dont want her to freak out on people for food ya know? what was that about ?

Answer
Hello again Amy!

I am so glad I could help you! Totally Ferret is a good brand. It is what we feed our fuzzies around here. It is still good practice to mix other foods with the food you are feeding mainly just to safeguard against having to switch your fuzzy abruptly onto another food if the need ever arises, but Totally Ferret is one of the better brands. The only drawback is that it has meat by-products in it (as well as meat) and by-products don't offer as much nutrition as just meat would, which is another good reason to mix other foods with it.

Like I said before, ferrets need to eat only meat. They should not be given sugars of any kind. If they are given sugars, that can lead to insulinoma, which is like diabetes, and that can be very difficult for both the fuzzy and the parent because extra care needs to be given (medication administration, etc.).

That being said, I have never heard of a ferret going so far outside of the "pecking order" that occurs with its humans. It is very unusual that a ferret would take food from its human and run away with it. If she does something like this again, I would suggest doing the same thing you would if your ferret had a nipping problem. Gently grab her by the scruff of her neck and say "no" in a firm voice. Imitating the hissing sound they make can be helpful in this situation as well because that is what their mother would do to discipline them if they did something naughty. Keeping all sweets away from her is also a good idea.

Watch her activity for the next day or so, paying particular attention to her bowel movements. If she ingested any of it, it will either be out of her system within twenty four hours, or you will see some strange consistencies in her stool. The cookie in a twix bar would be something difficult, if not impossible, for her to digest. If her stool stays normal and nothing changes, then you are probably in the clear! If her stool becomes skinny, she seems to be straining to pass stool, she becomes lethargic and begins drooling or if her stool takes on a bird seed like consistency, that could mean a blockage and if that happens she needs to see a vet IMMEDIATELY! If intestinal blockages are not caught in a timely manner they can and probably will mean a very bad end for your fuzzy.

I hope you found the answer you were looking for! If not, don't hesitate to ask!

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews